


and his name is superdog

by oceanterminal



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, but he really is a super dog, how long will it take lena to put the pieces together?, inspired by that one tumblr post about lena and the puppy, lena being gay and flustered included ofc, the nose Knows
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-14 02:25:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11198493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oceanterminal/pseuds/oceanterminal
Summary: One day, Supergirl plops a tiny, chubby puppy into Lena's lap. Lena's never had a dog before - never had the chance.He's adorable, but afraid of everyone.Funny how he's not afraid of Kara, though.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> inspired loosely by that one tumblr post by sango-blep!

It’d been a few days since she plopped him into Lena’s lap – a girl who shone in ethereal light holding a puppy who looked too soft, too chubby to be a real dog. She’d never raised one before – never had the chance to own a pet at home, never had the time for one, or so she thought. In that moment, when Supergirl laid him down in her lap, she decided she’d make time.

At first, Lena wasn’t exactly sure what to _do_ with a puppy. He was surely too young to talk for walks, surely too young to be left alone in a backyard somewhere, and considering Lena practically lived at L-Corp these days, well, the only suitable place for him would be right next to her. The concept of whether or not it was proper for a CEO to cart around an infant canine passed through her mind only briefly as she headed to the nearest pet store to purchase a bed, food and bowls. That’d be enough for starters, she decided.

Anybody who had the pleasure of entering her office was appropriately shocked – far be it from their own perception of Lena Luthor to have a _puppy_ , of all things. Lena refused to let it get to her, though. The more he waddled around, and the more she held him, the more she looked at him, the more she felt that taking him in was absolutely the right choice and that Supergirl had _excellent_ taste, quite frankly.

She decided, after much deliberation, to name him Superdog. Not that she called him this in front of anyone, of course. (Well, maybe she let it slip in front of Jess one time, and maybe Jess smiles knowingly at her when she deliberately avoiding offering the puppy’s name to anyone in her company, but – but.)

It just felt right – a little dorky, perhaps, but naming him after the one who bestowed him upon her felt appropriate, somehow.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite as confident as his namesake. Superdog tended to shy away from newcomers, cowering in the corner or in Lena’s arms whenever an unfamiliar face or smell appeared.

Except for Kara.

Lena couldn’t help the way her face lit up whenever Kara Danvers appeared in her general vicinity. Something about the girl always had her feeling lighter, brighter – like she wasn’t a Luthor for a few moments, like she was a normal person who could walk through a crowd without drawing staring eyes. (Not that Lena would ever give up her name – being a Luthor was a part of her she could never give up, but sometimes it felt nice to dream.)

So, when Kara showed up, lunch in hand and a beaming smile on her face, Lena felt like sunshine incarnate had waltzed into her office and graced her with its light.

“Kara!” Lena doesn’t bother to disguise the sheer _delight_ in her voice, shuffles a little in her seat, adjusts her shirt, tugs at the neckline to show just a little more cleavage. (She’s not daring to hope for anything, but – it can’t hurt, exactly, can it?) “I’m so sorry about this – I had the board up in arms over my latest proposal, and it took me until just now to get rid of them.”

Kara shrugs her shoulders, offers a funny (adorable) lop-sided grin that reaches her ears and indicates towards the door. “Would that be why I saw a parade of disgruntled old men outside?”

Lena chuckled, felt any remaining heaviness in her chest lift away as Kara laughed with her – only for the girl’s eyes to go wide as Superdog made his appearance.

“Oh! And who’s this?” Kara said, leaning down to beckon the tubby little dog closer. Lena felt a little bad – Kara seemed to be the type who would absolutely _love_ puppies, but Superdog just didn’t have the confidence yet.

“His name is Superdog – but he’s not very good with – ” Lena paused as she watched him plod up towards Kara, and placed his front paws on her shins, tail wagging, tongue out, a big grin on his face matching Kara’s. “ – new people.” She stared, puzzled at this occurrence. Superdog had _never_ reacted so happily to anyone else new – was this sort of thing normal with dogs?

Then again, considering Kara’s – everything, she could really understand why it was her, of all people. (She wondered if her affection for the girl was bleeding through into her puppy, but dismissed that silly train of thought before it went any further.)

“I guess you charmed him,” Lena grinned, standing up from her desk and walking a little closer. Kara made kissy faces at the puppy – cooed and ruffled his ears.

“No way, he charmed me! Aren’t you a good boy,” she said, lifting him up into the air. Superdog let out a happy yap and wiggled his legs – Kara flipped him onto his back and cradled him in her arms like a baby, gently tickling his stomach. “Gosh, I could play with him all day…”

(Lena felt very much like she could watch the way Kara’s face lit up as she played with him all day.)

“He is quite the looker,” Lena admitted, letting the grin spread from Kara’s face to her own. Superdog rotated himself and pawed at Lena’s chest as she came closer, so Kara awkwardly transferred him from her own arms to Lena’s, leaving a very contented pup, and apparently, a jealous Kara.

“I wish I had a puppy,” Kara said, looking disappointed as she extracted her lunch from one of the bags she’d left on the table. “He’s just so handsome…”

“When he’s a little bigger, would you like to take him for walks sometimes?” Lena suggested, internally crossing her fingers. The look on Kara’s face made her heart skip a beat.

“Aw, really?” Kara tried, but couldn’t stop beaming despite trying to look composed. “That’d be so nice…”

Lena did her best to look nonchalant, shrugged and looked away – “I get busy with work a lot, so I bet Superdog would love having a friend to take him outside. And if I’m free – “ Lena momentarily forgot to breathe, spoke a little too fast, “ – we could go together.”

“That sounds great! I’d love to,” Kara said, and god, Lena thought, her smile lit up the whole room.

Superdog yapped in agreement.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the warm reception on chapter 1!! i wanted to get this out earlier but i had an exam this morning ;;  
> i hope you guys enjoy c:  
> (i also hope this isn't too similar to the first chapter, aha ;;)

As it turned out, puppies grew. Rather quickly, at that. Lena didn’t know exactly how old Superdog was when she first met him, but he must’ve been around two months – she’d spent hours and hours pouring the internet, trying for size comparisons with other dogs that looked like him. It felt like such a short time since they’d met – two, maybe three weeks – but already, she could tell he was getting bigger. He walked a little more, waddled a little less, and his shoulders stood above her ankle now. It wasn’t a dramatic change, all things considered, but it did catch her by surprise.

With a small change in size, however, came confidence in leaps and bounds. No longer did Superdog cower when she dropped a pen on the floor, instead he grew curious, sniffed at it – gnawed at it if Lena left it too long. He felt like a rather polite dog, Lena decided. He didn’t rough up her office furniture, hadn’t had more than a few accidents (and really, Lena felt like that was her fault. If she was so tired so she didn’t notice him pawing at the door, that was on her). Instead, he plodded around the room with energy, chasing after balls she kicked with her feet. He’d figured out that if he brought it to her, she’d roll it again, and this seemed to entertain him for hours. It was almost difficult at times to stop playing with him and focus on work – multitasking usually won out over anything else. If she managed to tire him out with playing, he’d curl up in her lap or her feet and she’d – probably – be able to get some real work done.

It was Kara’s suggestion to get used to a lead and collar early on – the vet said he wouldn’t be able to get all of his shots until he was 16 weeks, which was a long time to wait considering how much Lena wanted to take him almost-but-not-quite-date-walks. Unfortunately, the confidence didn’t quite extend to something _else_ touching him just quite yet. He shied away from the collar like it was going to hurt him, yelping in distress. Lena hadn’t seen him so terrified since that first day, when Jess walked in and he cowered in her arms like she was going to eat him (nowadays, though, he was more comfortable with a friendly head pat or belly rub from the one secretary he did seem comfortable with). She’d tried again with treats in hand, hoping to encourage a more positive association, and it’d worked a little better. It was progress, at least. Kara told her not to worry about it but she couldn’t help it – not really.

However, the highlight of his week (and Lena’s) was always when Kara showed up.

Seeing her turned something on the puppy Lena almost never saw otherwise – his tail wagged like mad, he adopted a playful stance, wiggling his butt in the air, and ran over her feet.

When she walked in on that Wednesday afternoon it was hard not to light up right with him.

He plodded over to her, ball in mouth and tail wagging furiously, dropped it at her feet and yapped. Kara rubbed his ears with both hands, immediately delving into baby talk (Lena felt a little jealous that Kara said hi to the dog before herself, but – she quashed that though), before tossing the ball, giggling with glee at him (Lena felt her heartstrings twang) and finally (finally) turning to Lena with a grin.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” Lena said, flustered.

“I’m so sorry I had to cancel lunch yesterday – Miss Grant was having a hernia and I just couldn’t make it – I’m so sorry – “ Kara frowned, and Lena felt her stomach lurch.

“No, no, I understand. I have to cancel every now and then because of work – it’s no big deal,” Lena said, trying very hard to make it not sound like a big deal. It seemed to be convincing (phew), because Kara beamed again, leant on Lena’s desk.

“So,” she grinned, “how’s life with a Super in the family?”

Lena felt her heart stop rather abruptly, didn’t entertain the idea of anything else because she knew what Kara meant but – but.

“Wonderful,” she said, as the boy himself toddled up to them, ball apparently not interesting enough to bring with him. “He really is a super dog.”

Now that sparked a laugh from Kara – rich, unbridled laughter that carried creases into the corners of her eyes, the corners of her mouth stretched wide. She picked up Superdog under his forelegs, held him in the air, giggled as he sneezed.

“You’re a super super pup, aren’t you, boy?” Kara said, scrunching her nose up and kissing the puppy’s before setting him back down again to a soft bark of protest.

“How are you, though?” Kara asked, and – oh. Lena hadn’t really had the time to think much about _herself_ in the past few weeks – her brain had been running constantly on _dog work dog work Kara dog work dog dog dog work_.

“Well, I just realised I haven’t gone walking since I got him – I would love to take him with me but he’s just not old enough yet,” Lena admitted, peering down at her stomach and wondering if she’d gained a few pounds. Walking was a poor man’s exercise, Lena felt, but Kara had insisted than walking was 80% of running, and so – she’d started. Little evening walks to begin with, sometimes in the morning if she woke up early enough. “Raising a puppy is a full-time job, as it turns out.”

“Oh no,” Kara pouted – and on anyone else, Lena would have felt like she was being patronised, but this was Kara and if anything, the girl probably felt bad that her suggestion didn’t work out. “I can watch him for you, if you’d like. You know, so you can have some time to yourself, or something.”

Ah – another excuse to see her, right there before her. Lena knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“I would really appreciate that,” she admitted. Leaving him in Kara’s capable hands would be a relief. She loved Superdog more than anything, probably. Kara made a tiny fist-pump motion to herself – so slight that Lena thought she’d missed it but, no, that would-be Kara (how _cute_ ). Superdog pawed at her leg, so Lena picked him up, placed him in her lap and watched him lean into her touch as she gently rubbed his belly. They were silent for a moment – she could only hear the sound of Superdog yawning as he’d apparently tuckered himself out already. He had been chasing his ball all day – it made sense. Lena felt a smile curve to her face.

“You really love him, don’t you?” Kara observed, hands clasped behind her back and a soft smile on her lips. Lena felt heat rise to her cheeks – wanted to look away, couldn’t quite manage it so just stayed there, blushing probably.

“I do,” she admitted. “He wormed his way into my heart in the space of a few seconds.”

“I’m really glad,” Kara said, checking her watch and – paused, looked panicked – “and I have really got to go otherwise Miss Grant will kill me, I’m so sorry – call me if you need a puppysitter!”

Kara hurtled out of her office in a hurry, fearful of whatever Cat Grant might do to her should she have one hair out of place. Lena was pretty sure she heard the girl crash against the wall. She heard a ‘sorry’ a few seconds later, proving herself right. Lena giggled – it just made that girl more endearing.

Superdog had fallen asleep in her lap – Lena smiled. She really did love him – a few weeks and somehow he was already so precious to her.

Lena left one hand gently stroking his head, and got back to work.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its 7am and i haven't slept but sometimes you just gotta write man. i hope y'all enjoy.

Lena stretched out her legs as she finally – _finally_ – finished responding to all of that day’s emails. She had a personal policy to keep work and home separate – years of planning and working hard at home lead to more and more sleepless nights until Lena finally moved out (again), and swore to herself that she’d be _better_ this time. After all – nobody was going to tell her to look after herself anymore.

(She thought of Lex, briefly, winced, and moved on.)

The downside of keeping work at work, however, was that work tended not to end until daylight was a long-forgotten and the moon had been her only company for hours. Kara sometimes expressed her concern for Lena going home so late at night – worrying about if it were safe, worrying if Lena was getting enough sleep (not that Lena had ever been much familiar with the concept of a good night’s sleep, but if it meant enough to Kara then, well, she could look into it).

Superdog yawned in the corner – caught Lena’s eye. She’d almost (but of course not quite) forgotten him in her midnight email reply haze. She didn’t think she’d left her chair since she’d arrived in the office at 8am sharp, but she felt like she’d been running marathons all day. Superdog looked like he felt the same, although she supposed laps around her office chasing his ball qualified as puppy-marathons, what with those tiny, stubby legs.

Lena closed the lid to her laptop, packed it away in her bag and was just about to grab her keys from the drawer when she heard a gentle tap at her window. She turned, expecting to see nothing but oh, it was Supergirl, hair flowing and suit gently glowing in the moonlight, and city’s _oh_. Lena stopped in her tracks, mouth forming a tiny ‘o’ before she immediately regained her composure and did her absolute best to look flawless. Not need to be embarrass herself in front of the protector of National City, after all.

“Supergirl,” Lena remarked, her throat suddenly dry, “it’s a pleasure to see you.”

She realised that Supergirl probably couldn’t hear her through the glass, so she opened the window and repeated herself before realising wait, she has _superhearing_ so there went all her attempts to not make a fool of herself, dashed in one move. Lena closed her eyes, wincing.

“And you too, Miss Luthor,” she smiled, and Lena felt a familiar warmth rise in her chest – that of safety and sunshine, like anyone would feel when gazing at the city’s hundred-time saviour. “How is he?”

Supergirl nodded towards the puppy asleep in the corner of her office – Lena bit her lip, smiled and nodded back.

“He’s wonderful,” Lena said, affection for him slipping out, “I never imagined myself owning a pet, but – he really is a _super_ dog.”

Lena hoped Kara didn’t mind that she pirated her pun.

Supergirl smiled to herself, released a soft chuckle and paused before stepping aside – waiting for invitation, presumably. Lena nodded her approval and she stepped inside. Superdog stirred from his nap, shook his whole body from nose to tail tip, and plodded over to Supergirl, pawed at her feet like he wanted to be lifted into the air.

“Looks like you still remember me, huh Superdog?” Supergirl said, beaming into the eyes of a very pleased and very sleepy puppy as she lifted him in her arms – and it caught Lena as a little odd Superdog even remembered her, because that was weeks and weeks ago by now, and – well. It wasn’t like Lena had any expertise on the nature of dogs and memory and smells, so – regardless.

“You must have been talking to Kara,” Lena said, hands clasped behind her back. “I try to keep his name a little under wraps, but I can understand why she told you.”

Supergirl looked like she froze for a second, paused in mid-pat before cradling the puppy in her arms, turning back to Lena.

“Ah – yeah,” she admitted, twisting her foot into the carpet. “Kara just couldn’t stop telling me all about him, and she let it slip. I can have a word with her, if you’d like.”

Lena shook her head, waved her hand in dismissal. “Don’t worry about it. Kara trusts you – and I do too.”

Supergirl nodded, returning to making kissy faces at Superdog (who seemed more than delighted to have an extra playmate, given that he was swiping at her other hand with his clumsy puppy paws).

Eventually, though, he tired himself out all over again – Lena watched his eyes droop lower and lower until he slumped down, front paws and chin hanging over Supergirl’s arm.

“How are you enjoying him?” Supergirl asked, quietly. She didn’t make an effort to meet Lena’s eyes – Lena blinked, smiled.

“He is more work and more fun than any living being I’ve ever interacted with,” she says, frowning at her phrasing but nodding further. “He’s captured my heart, well and truly.”

“I’m glad I gave him to you,” she says softly, gently rocking the puppy in her arms. Supergirl bent down and deposited him in Lena’s now-empty office chair, still warm from where she’d been sitting.

“I just wanted to check in with you,” she continued, looking sheepish – strangely more vulnerable than normal. “Dropping a puppy on someone out of the blue is not always the right move.”

“It was for me,” Lena said, truthfully. Even with accidents and that scare when he’d been sick on the bathroom floor at her house, she’d never once regretted taking him in.

Supergirl walked back over to the window, looked back over her shoulder, and nodded in approval.

“I’m glad – and I’m sorry to keep this brief, but there’s a car crash a few streets down and I need to be there – “ she said, shrugging her shoulder and floating into the air. “Take care, Miss Luthor.”

“You too, Supergirl,” Lena said, watching the girl’s figure become smaller and smaller, until she vanished behind a building. Superdog yawned again, and Lena softened, headed back towards him and picked him up. It was late. They should get home.

 

 


End file.
